In order to use data from the Gutenberg Health Study (GHS) for scientific purposes, each scientist must become a member of the GHS Research Consortium and thus recognise the Rules of Procedure of the GHS Research Consortium. By doing so, each scientist declares that they will comply with the principles, utilisation modalities and formalities of the interdisciplinary Research Consortium as defined in the regulations. Detailed information on access to and use of GHS study data can be found here.
The GHS Executive Committee coordinates the scientific projects. It checks the feasibility of the scientific questions of a proposed project, overlaps with existing projects and whether they are covered by the consent of the study participants. Any form of publication must be submitted to the Steering Committee with a deadline of at least ten working days for formal approval. It checks the correct presentation of the study and the naming of all sponsors.
When scientists apply for a project, a project group is defined at the beginning. With the decision to publish the results, the members of the project group - if they have made a genuine scientific contribution - are listed as authors in publications. The contributions are documented in writing for each author. The determination of authorship follows the principles of good scientific practice and the criteria of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
The following rules apply to manuscript approval and publication:
The GHS Research Consortium is always included in the list of authors for all publications. The following applies in detail: